Vindictive, Stupid And Extreme

 Too often these days, listening to the news is like taking crazy pills. 

It's not simply that I disagree with just about everything Trump is doing, it's just boggling my mind that there is a constituency for anything he's doing. Ending government funding for cancer research? Did cancer write that policy? Ending efforts to curb air pollution? 

It is fashionable online to reason backwards from the stark unpopularity of these measures and make the - not unreasonable surmise that Republicans will rig it so that they never have to face the electorate again. There are structural reasons in federalism why this could be quite tricky to pull off, but for the first time, I think it's reasonable for Americans of all types to wonder if they will have meaningful elections again.

There's another explanation that is - oddly - more comforting and fits more neatly with the facts.

Trump is a deeply stupid man - both in terms of cognitive ability and knowledge. Like many stupid people, he is also cruel and vindictive; it's his defining personality trait. 

As Krugman lays out, Trump's tariff policy is just doesn't make sense from any rational angle. That's why stocks are cratering; it's why business leaders are imploring Trump to reverse course. There is a case for a measured industrial policy, as Krugman concedes. Finding ways to onshore things like computer chip manufacturing makes sense.

Naturally, Trump wants to kill it.

Why? Probably because Biden passed it. My guess is that if Trump can repeal it (I doubt it), he would then turn around and pass the exact same bill, call it TrumpChip and say it's so much better than the identical Biden Era legislation. Stupid. Vindictive.

As Richardson notes, (and this blog has been reiterating for years) the modern GOP is not a conservative party. It's a radical reactionary party. This is the common ground between the libertine, New York Trump and the Talibangelical base of his support. Trump, deeply stupid, thinks McKinley was America's Zenith. He has ideas about trade that a high school student wouldn't hold. 

He's a sentient Facebook screed by your angry uncle with a GED and "common sense". 

If you look at the accumulation of Trump's "policy portfolio" there are only two conclusions that you can draw. The first, conspiratorial view is that Trump is Russian agent who has been sent to destroy America. Comforting, as conspiracy theories are, because it suggests a plan somewhere.

The second is that he is a manifestation of Cleek's Law. Why does he want to end cancer research? Because Democrats support it. Why does he oppose good relations with Canada? Because Democrats support it. Why does he want to end the CHIPs bill? Because Democrats support it. Why does he want to throw his own voters off Medicaid? Because Democrats support it. Why does he want to end the Department of Education? Because Democrats support it.

If this sounds incredibly stupid, like deeply brain damaged, that's because it is. 

Trump, being himself deeply stupid and suffering from irreversible age-based decline, is a cruel, vane man. He hates anyone who tells him no. So, he's going to lash out wildly at anyone and anything he thinks isn't "on his side," even if those who oppose him are objectively right.

And there's no off ramp coming.